While you were sleeping
by Latent Lullaby
Summary: A oneshot about the time in Ocarina of Time when Link is trapped in the sacred realm, told in Zelda's point of view. LZ


While you were sleeping

One-shot

By Zeldagurl

Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, but I do own a small plushy that looks like Link, along with some drawings and stuff. Does that count?

(Begin)

It was a normal day in the land of Hyrule. The skies were visibly darkened, and the clouds swirled ominously above, becoming thicker and more toxic as one neared the ruins of Castle-town.

For the people of Hyrule, it was shockingly normal. Ever since the 'great Ganondorf' had gained control of the sacred realm, things had been much darker and hopeless than life had once been.

A young man rode his horse at a medium pace, quickly crossing the fields that lay before the ruins of the castle and it's surrounding town. He wore a tight body suit and a ripped shirt that expanded upon his torso, along with a cowl that wrapped around his lower face and his head. His blonde hair waved along with the wind and his deeply red eyes scanned the land surrounding him with a deep concern or a deep mistrust. He wasn't easily read into or judged, especially by the people who saw him pass by; although, with the danger of traveling in those days, not many would have been there to see him go.

He rode along the river that flowed into the castle, now muddy and dirty, with a slow flow and a shallow amount of water trickling along the bed of it. He watched it as he rode by, seeming to bow his head in sadness at the state of the one-great river.

The land narrowed, and he came to the broken bridge of the castle wall. He dismounted and left his horse at the entrance after giving it a good rub on the neck and a whispered word of comfort to the nervous animal, which seemed to be spooked at the very sight of the desolate place.

He seemed to stand as tall as he could before the towering, squinting to be able to see the topmost spire of the dark castle. He took it in, and took a deep breath, seeming to puff himself up to be able to have the strength to move forward.

Without another second's hesitation, he strode forward, disappearing into the misty veiled entrance to the ruins of the once-lively castle town.

(Switch)

Castle town was a shadow of what it once had been; reeking of death and of those who follow evil in all boundaries. The young man breathed as little as he could of the acrid, stale air and moved quickly throughout the main avenue of the town.

There, the dead things that stood watch, unmoving in their duties to guard against all who would seek to bring good back to the town. These animated pieces of flesh watched the man, and grinned wickedly at his reluctance to meet their eyes.

"Il el mortilus el kailel, nai kornal sheik el ar sheikah, faoru fai alel..." He called out in a tongue that was most similar to the language of the dead that the beings used amongst themselves. In the normal way of speaking, it simply meant; "I am one of the shadow, sheik of the sheikah, let me through..."

They did not answer, but let him pass unhindered through the lane to the stairway that led to the Temple of Time.

The moblins who guarded the pathway to the dark castle, snorted and prodded at each other, watching the young man go. They were dumb, ornery beasts, who were not capable of understanding and using the language of the dead. But the large monsters understood, knowing that he was Ganondorf's right hand man was enough to keep them from even looking at him unless he demanded them to.

Sheik walked slowly up the stairs that led to the courtyard of the Temple; breathing hard in the atmosphere of evil that pervaded the place. It took all of his concentration to keep walking, looking as though he was unhindered, without collapsing to the ground underneath the aura of the place.

He looked up at the Temple that now stood before him and scrambled the rest of the way to the heavy wooden doors. He could already feel the strain of the air beginning to lessen around him, and he moved all the faster because of it.

He opened the doors and rushed inside, feeling his body come back to its normal strength and energy.

He took a deep breath and walked forward into the cool interior of the Temple of Time. It was a hushed place, empty of anything but a stone dais with the symbol of light carved on it and an altar that held the three spiritual stones of the forest, fire, and water. The man looked around as he walked, examining, as he always did, the great stone walls and the large windows that let in just enough light (what little there was from the outside) to make the temple a lighted place. As always, he could hear the chanting of an unseen choir, singing the song of time in this place where evil had not touched.

He walked forward and then to the side, climbing the small stairs that led to the legendary door of time, fabled to be impenetrable. He stepped forward and put a hand to the door, feeling its cold, stony texture and muttering a few indistinct words.

As soon as he had spoken these words, his hand went through the door and he passed through it to emerge on the other side, finding a small room that housed a swords, and a boy...

The first striking thing about the room was the fact that there was something like a storm of clouds, whipping and winding around the sword and the boy who gripped it. It was a frightening thing to behold, with thunder and lightning flashing throughout it and the wind funneling violently around it.

It was the flow of time, unpredictable, like a current in Hyrule's own Lake Hylia. Sheik stepped forward to it, bringing his arm up to shield his eyes from the light and the wind. He meant to go in it, knowing full well that he was the safest in this flow of time, and that he had to go in anyway.

He stepped in, immediately feeling himself torn in two from outside of the flow, and inside of it. As he moved in, his head scarf came loose, and all of his blonde hair came tumbling down to fall to the middle of his back. His eyes changed from red, to a royal blue, and he changed from being a man, to being a woman.

Completely in the time stream, Princess Zelda stood erect and strong once again, being in her natural form once again, looking down at the boy who clutched the Master Sword. She immediately stepped forward and knelt down, coming close to the boy and scooping him up into her arms.

"Link..." She breathed, calling his name, not expecting an answer, but trying all the same. She sat back and stroked the sleeping boy's hair, brushing it back from his forehead and shifting him to rest more comfortably. After she was done doing all of this, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

She was the princess of all of Hyrule, and she was not supposed to be here...

Zelda opened her blue eyes once more and looked around her, dimly seeing the world around the time-stream, looking up at the large and long window that shed light upon the place where she and the Hero of Time rested.

Both Rauru and Impa had told her to stay away from the Hero of Time, they had warned her that her cover could be blown and that if Ganondorf found her before Link did, everything would fail. She hadn't listened to them, and hadn't been listening to them for the seven years since Link was shut in here.

She visited him every year since then, spending a spare hour with the boy until she had to leave Castle-town, lest her cover be blown. This was the seventh, and the last time that she would be visiting, since the sacred realm was giving off numerous signs that he was about to awaken. Rauru had recently noticed great fluctuations in the time-stream, and seen that Link was beginning to stir with small movements.

"So... it's been a year, hmm?" She said quietly, looking down at him and smiling.

"Not much has changed for me, the world is still dark and twisted, although good people continue to stay strong in our villages of Hyrule." She sighed and looked at the window that shed a beam of light on the both of them.

"It's been getting increasingly easy to get where I want to go. I think that Ganondorf is finally becoming lax in his grip on the kingdom. The most trouble I have is a random moblin to evade once in a while... Everyone is doing well, last I checked anyway... Malon's father ran away because Ganondorf awarded the ranch to that Ingo character. He beats the horses, and doesn't treat Malon very well, but you can't expect much better than that in these times." She sighed.

"It's not just the fact that Ganondorf is ruling over Hyrule, it's the people too. Everyone is losing hope. People just aren't good anymore, and kindness and mercy dwindles as the light fades from our people." Zelda shook her head after a moment, knowing that such news would only depress her, and she didn't need to be depressed, it was the last thing she needed to be.

So Zelda tried to bring herself to share happier times with him, though times that were happy were rare to find.

"But I refuse to believe that good has left us; People just need to be reminded of what good really is... And I'm convinced that, once you return to us, people will begin to remember." Her heart soared as the words left her mouth, but she immediately bowed her head, and refrained from laughing out loud.

"Impa was doing well, last I saw her. She was a bit hurried with some business, readying for your return I suppose. I've already told you how she feels about me coming to see you like this, but I guess that it can't be helped." She smiled fondly, thinking of the woman who raised her since she was very small, after her mother died.

"The Gorons are diminishing as we speak, kidnapped by Ganondorf's followers and put into the fire temple. I don't know where they are hidden; I couldn't survive long enough in there to free any of them. Dariunia has taken it hard, and, last I heard, he went to the temple himself to free his people. Now his son is left alone in the city; his name is Link by the way... I wonder if I told you that last time. I thought you'd find it interesting..." She stroked his cheek softly, smiling and blinking at him.

"The Zora's are frozen beneath an ice-sheet, and I could only rescue their princess. If I was you, they would probably all be free by now. But I'm just temporary until you wake up, then you'll have to take over for me." She said sadly, frowning at herself and shaking her head.

She was silent for just a moment, thinking to herself and wondering, wanting so much for him to be able to respond, and look her in the eye.

"I-I'm so sorry that I've gotten all of us into this mess. I know that I was too young to even understand what I was doing. I'm so ashamed. I wish that everyone didn't have to suffer on my account, and because of my folly." She bit her lip, feeling inside of her the sorrow, for all of the people that she had hurt, and all of the pain that Link would have to go through because she had thought she had known what she was doing.

She took a breath and smoothed down his blonde hair, stroking the soft skin of his cheek.

"I hope that after this, I'll get to know you better. Maybe as more than a princess and a hero, what do you think?" She asked him with a wistful smile on her face.

"Of course, you don't think anything right now." She laughed at herself bitterly and looked at his sleeping face.

"When we were little, things were much simpler; it would have been so easy to know you then because no one would have cared who their princess was with, because we were children."

"But things aren't like that." She smiled and stroked his cheek once more, feeling the heat from his body and his soul, knowing that it was the only thing left, preserved from the days when they were children.

He was warmth, when everything around her was cold and dark. He was the light, which had kept her alive for these seven long years. Zelda could feel that everything about him was good, like the way she could tell that Ganondorf was terribly wicked and evil. All that Link had was love and courage, and those things allowed him to BE the hero that everyone in the land was silently holding their breath for.

She was silent for a while then, holding onto her emotions and enjoying the last time that she would ever be this close to him. The princess held onto him tightly, burying her head in his hair as she held him up. She was quiet, listening to him breathe, looking for the peace that she had possessed when he was last with her. She wanted to grip it, just for a moment, even for just a second, she wanted to taste it, if only once for the rest of her life.

As though reading her thoughts, the stationary Hero moved against her, sighing quietly as he settled himself against her. Feeling the movement, the princess looked down at him, smiling softly as he cuddled closer to her.

He had never moved before, and Zelda knew that it was a warning sign that he would awake very soon. Rauru had told her when she had asked him how he would know when Link was going to wake up, since the sacred realm was entitled to hold onto him until he was ready to be a hero.

And now that he looked like he was going to be waking up extremely soon, it meant a wealth of things for the Princess, and the people of Hyrule... It meant freedom from oppression, and the darkness that had covered Hyrule for seven long years. It meant peace, a happiness that would exist for a time that could last from anywhere to a year, to a hundred years. It meant hope, the knowledge that darkness, and trouble does pass, and that the world is not as cold as everyone always thought it was...

But for Zelda, as she looked down at the sleeping Hero's face, it meant something that could not be put into words or actions or thoughts. It meant all and nothing, at the same time; a questioning confusion to be sure...

The Princess wasn't sure that she would ever find a way to understand what Link represented to her. Just the fact that he was there, sleeping in the stream of time and waiting for the day that he would awaken to save a nation that he had never even known. It was the kind of faithful loyalty that Zelda had never understood, but had always depended on as a little girl. She had seen it so many times, now most recently in this boy who had believed her when she had needed someone to believe in her prophecies and ideas.

"While we're both here, and since, in a month or two, you'll be thrown into a quest that I'll have only a small part in, I want to thank you-for all that you've done and for what you're about to do, even though you won't really understand it at first. I just want you to know, somehow, that I am so thankful that you are here, doing what you're going to have to do..."

She smiled and laughed at herself,

"I know I'm not making much sense right now. I know I've never been very good at getting people to understand what I'm saying..." She paused and took a small breath,

"...But thank you, all the same."

She stood up, laying him back down like she had found him gently, before stepping back out of the time stream. As she emerged, everything that had covered her as a woman and transformed her into a man, reformed and changed, making sure that Sheik existed once again.

He walked forward with a confident stride, masking well the princess who lurked inside, and regretted almost everything she had ever done. He stopped for a second and glanced back behind him at the sleeping boy who clutched the master sword as though it was his very life.

'Good luck, Hero of Time.'

He smiled and looked away, finally stepping back through the door of time and heading back to the entrance of the Temple of Time.

Sheik was actually planning on trying to organize how he was going to lead the Hero to the temples, when he heard a small, quiet sound, much like a grunt or a groan of a man. He stopped in his tracks and froze his heart beating wildly as he heard continued sounds of someone getting up.

He twisted backwards and quietly crept to the altar to hear a little better, when the Door of Time itself, opened slowly to reveal a man standing in front of the Pedestal of Time with the Master Sword drawn, along with a hylian shield. Sheik shivered at the sight of the Hero, standing as a great fierce being, nothing like the little boy who had first entered. Sheik couldn't help but feel that he looked like a god, a fierce deity, a being of unlimited power who was on the side of good.

He could feel the hope rekindled in his heart, and for the first time in seven years, he felt...

Sheik swallowed audibly and got a hold of himself, his mind immediately moving on to his half-formed plan of how to talk to the Hero, and guide him to the first temple...

He crept to the door and hid with his back against the wall, listening for movement from Link. He heard a tinkling voice that he assumed was Navi the fairy; she was speaking kindly to Link with a barely contained excitement in her tiny voice. She heard a deep voice respond to her, and sheik closed his eyes, praying to whoever was listening, asking for courage instead of the boundless wisdom that he had been blessed with.

The moment came, and Link began to descend the stairs with a slow grace.

Sheik teleported to the Pedestal of Time, moving as quietly as he could, but before he knew it, Link had tensed and was now looking back at the sheikah in disguise.

"Who are you?"

Sheik could not respond. Link's blue eyes gazed directly into his, and he felt as though Link could see right through him. His heart was beating rapidly, he was sure that Link could hear it... He prayed for the breath to talk to fill his lungs, and for his legs not to collapse beneath him from the sheer surprise and shock of seeing Link awake once more. Knowing that all that he and the Sages that were awakened had worked for, was about to come to pass, for freedom.

Yes... Freedom. That was what they were fighting for, wasn't it?

He pushed down the feelings of the Princess who lived inside of him and hid them away, reminding himself that this was more than Link and Zelda. It was freedom that they were fighting for, and freedom was everything. Freedom could make all things possible, even love between a Hero and a princess...

Yes... Freedom... Freedom for them both

So he resolved in those few seconds before speaking, to be strong for the sake of Hyrule, and the small hope that Hyrule was nursing. He resolved to put away his weakness and to do his job, for Hyrule... and for Freedom.

Freedom for them all...

"I am sheik, last survivor of the sheikah. Your guide in this world that you now do not know." He breathed.

It felt good.

(End)

Authors note: okay, as most of you know. Ocarina of Time is my favorite game of all of the Zelda games, and with all of the hype about Twigh light Princess, I wanted to take a moment to remember what was so awesome about Oot.

The ending may not make sense, but I really hope it does. So please read and review, and I'll be sure to keep cranking em' out.

-Zeldagurl...


End file.
